Associate Professor Sebastian Skatulla

Dipl-Ing. (KIT Karlsruhe), PhD (Adelaide)​

Structural Engineering and Mechanics

Website: http://www.ccm.uct.ac.za

Email: sebastian.skatulla@uct.ac.za​


Sebastian Skatulla is an Associate Professor of Structural Engineering and Mechanics in the Department of Civil Engineering and in the Centre for Research in Computational and Applied Mechanics (CERECAM). He graduated as Diplom Bau-Ingenieur (TH) from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in 2003. He was awarded his PhD degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Adelaide in 2007 and subsequently took up a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Nottingham conducting research in the fields of generalized continuum methods and electro-mechanical coupling of Electroactive Polymers. His current research activities are focused on computational biomechanics with an emphasis on cardiac mechanics. Recently, he started exploring the poroelasticity of sea-ice and reinforced concrete. He serves as President of the South African Association for Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (SAAM) since 2016 and as a Member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Computing in Civil and Building Engineering (ISCCBE) since 2015.

Research Interests

• Biomechanics: Computational cardiac mechanics with application to rheumatic heart disease
• Multiscale methods with applications to soft tissue, reinforced concrete and soil mechanics
• Multiscale methods considering continua with micro structure: Cosserat, micromorphic and generalised continua and their application to heterogeneous materials
• Smart structures, electro- and magnetomechanical coupling: Electro- and magneto-active polymers, electro- and magnetostrictive materials
• Meshfree methods and High-Performance Computing

Publications

Books

• C. Sansour and S. Skatulla, Generalized Continua and Dislocation Theory. Theoretical Concepts, Computational Methods and Experimental Verification, Springer, Wien New York, 2012, ISBN: 978-3-7091-1221-2 

Book chapters

• C. Sansour and S. Skatulla, "A Shell Theory with Scale Effects, Higher Order Gradients, and Meshfree Computations", in D. Mueller-Hoppe, S. Loehnert and S. Reese, Recent Developments and Innovative Applications in Computational Mechanics, Springer, Heidelberg, 2011, ISBN: 978-3-642-17483-4 
• C. Sansour, S. Skatulla and A. Arunachalakasi, "A generalized framework and a multiplicative formulation of electro-mechanical coupling", in: G. Maugin and A. Metrikine (Eds.), Mechanics of Generalized Continua: One Hundred Years after the Cosserats, Springer, New York, 2010 

Journal publications

• R.R. Rama and S. Skatulla (2018), ”Towards real-time cardiac mechanics modelling with patient-specific heart anatomies”, Computers Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 328: 47-74, doi:10.1016/j.cma.2017.08.015
• M. von Hoegen, S. Skatulla and Jörg Schröder (2017), ”A generalized micromorphic approach accounting for variation and dispersion of preferred material directions”, Computers and Structures, accepted, doi:10.1016/j.compstruc.2017.11.013
• S. Skatulla and C. Sansour (2016), ”On a path-following method for non-linear solid mechanics with applications to structural and cardiac mechanics subject to arbitrary loading scenarios”, International Journal of Solids and Structures, 96: 181-191, doi:10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2016.06.009
• R.R. Rama, S. Skatulla and C. Sansour (2016), ”Real-time modelling of diastolic filling of the heart using the Proper Orthogonal Decomposition with Interpolation”, International Journal of Solids and Structures, accepted, 96: 409-422, doi:10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2016.04.003
• K. Sack, S. Skatulla and C. Sansour (2016), ”Biological tissue mechanics with fibres modelled as one-dimensional Cosserat continua. Applications to cardiac tissue”, International Journal of Solids and Structures, 81: 84-94, doi:10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2015.11.009
• S. Skatulla , C. Sansour, and M. Hjiaj (2015), ”On computational shells with scale effects”, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 283: 46-73, doi:10.1016/j.cma.2014.08.001
• D. Legner, S. Skatulla, J. Mbewu, R.R. Rama, B. D. Reddy, C. Sansour, N. Davies and T. Franz (2014), ”Studying the influence of hydrogel injections into the infarcted left ventricle using the element-free Galerkin method”, International Journal for Numerical Methods in Biomedical Engineering, 30: 416-429, doi:10.1002/cnm.2610
• C. Sansour, S. Skatulla and M. Hjiaj (2013), ”A Shell Theory with Scale Effects and Higher Order Gradients”, International Journal of Solids and Structures, 50: 2271-2280, doi:10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2013.03.031
• S. Skatulla and C. Sansour (2013), ”A formulation of a Cosserat-like continuum with multi- ple scale effects”, Computational Materials Science, 67: 113-122, doi:10.1016/j.commatsci.2012.08.040
• S. Skatulla, C. Sansour and A. Arunachalakasi (2012), ”A multiplicative formulation for electro-mechanical coupling at finite strains”, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 245-246: 243-255, doi:10.1016/j.cma.2012.07.002
• C. Sansour, S. Skatulla and H. Zbib (2010), ”A formulation for the micromorphic continuum at finite inelastic strains”, International Journal of Solids and Structures, 47: 1546-1554, doi:10.1016/j.ijsolstr.2010.02.017
• C. Sansour and S. Skatulla (2009), ”A strain gradient generalised continuum approach for modelling elastic scale-effects”, Computer Methods in Applied Mechanics and Engineering, 198: 1401-1412, doi:10.1016/j.cma.2008.12.031
• S. Skatulla, A. Arunachalakasi and C. Sansour (2009), ”A nonlinear generalized continuum framework for electro-elasticity. Theoretical and Computational Aspects”, Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids, 57(1): 137-160, doi:10.1016/j.jmps.2008.09.014
• S. Skatulla and C. Sansour (2008), ”Essential boundary conditions in meshfree methods via a modified variational principle. Applications to shell computations”, Computer Assisted Mechanics and Engineering Sciences, 15: 123-142
• C. Sansour and S. Skatulla (2007), ”A higher gradient formulation and meshfree-based computation for elastic rock”, Geomechanics and Geoengineering, 2(1): 3-15, doi:10.1080/17486020601173185
• C. Sansour and S. Skatulla (2007), ”A nonlinear Cosserat continuum-based formulation and moving least square approximations in computations of size-scale effects in elasticity”, Computational Materials Science, 41(4): 589-601, doi:10.1016/j.commatsci.2007.05.024